WTH was I trying? Attempting to do a quick Cinematic

I’ve been fighting for 2 days, to get a decent proof of concept of an animated 3D scene, but either dynamic sky or hdri with spot, rim etc lights, just isn’t working. The initial phase was creating camera work just using dusk to night, but I kept fighting it, never could get the lighting to stick, then opted for HDRI, with some “helper” lights, again, major issues.
Anyone work with this in sequencer, animating time of day with good lighting?